Far from fading, the startup trend that has been sweeping the nation is evolving, and now consumers and investors get more say than ever in the products that make it to the market. Some of these fledgling companies are handing almost everything but the needle and thread over to shoppers by giving them more customizable products, some are gearing up to save the world, and others are coming up with little tricks to make life easier. Take a look at the next generation of Massachusetts-based fashion startups.
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99degreescustom.com

99Degrees Custom: Lawrence

Custom-made apparel is becoming the new norm, but there’s one problem with it — the actual customization process can take weeks. 99Degrees Custom’s streamlined manufacturing process gives retailers the ability to speed up their turnaround times. The company employs people in Lowell and Lawrence, former Industrial Revolution boom towns in need of another boost, and aims to prepare them for advance manufacturing jobs within five years of their hiring.
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cat5boatshoes.com

Category 5: Framingham

Massachusetts’ colleges, already preppy, are about to get even more worthy of their own J. Crew spread. Category 5, founded by five best friends from Sudbury and Wayland, originally gave customers the option of adding fraternity letters to a pair of boat shoes. Now, customers can also add the outline of Nantucket Island or upload their own artwork for embossing.
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lallitara.com

lallitara: Cambridge

lallitara’s one-of-a-kind shorts, tanks, and scarves are sewn in Massachusetts but collected in India. The company pays Indian women three times the market value of the scraps of saris they collect each day and turns them into 50-150 garments, none of which are ever exactly alike. Once the fabric is gone, so is the garment, and a new style is introduced each month. The company currently offers tank tops, shorts, and scarves and debuted a dress on June 3. lallitara also partners with poverty-fighting NGOs to donate 10 percent of its profits each month.
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mariwear.com

Mariwear: Sudbury

At the end of a long day, most of us toss on a pair of sweats and an old T-shirt as soon as we get home. It’s not the most glamorous look, but it’ll do, right? Successful Kickstarter campaign Mariwear changes that mindset by providing women with modest, comfortable clothing in elegant patterns and designs. Each item’s built-in bra gives women support and shape, minus the discomfort of wires and fasteners.
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ministryofsupply.com

Ministry of Supply: Cambridge

Ministry of Supply’s line of professional businesswear provides comfort while on the job with high-tech fabrics. Its fashionable dress shirt, base layer, and slacks were designed using technology at MIT that maps out body heat and aeropsace engineering to analyze body movements. The result? Fashoinable dress shirts, base layers, and slacks that wick away moisture, ventilate, and move with you all day.
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Lara Gordon/Rocked Jewelry

Rocked Jewelry: Cambridge

This Somerville-based company makes jewelry out of gemstones and sustainable linen thread. The jewelry has already been featured at a TED event and in the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s gift shop.
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Natalie Goodale/Juneberry Bags

Juneberry Bags: Northampton

This Kickstarter campaign raised $10,270, over double of what it originally asked. Buyers can change the style of the bags from messenger to backpack to over-the-shoulder and zip new patterned covers on and off in seconds.
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bowanddrape.com

Bow and Drape: Boston

Bow and Drape designs the silhouette, but you design everything else. Customers can choose from a variety of beautiful white dresses, skirts, tops, and accessories and add just about any combination of colors and trims for a truly one-of-a-kind outfit.
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lithographs.com

Lithographs: Cambridge

Lithographs turns entire books into works of art. Each image that the company prints on a T-shirt or poster is made of the full text of classics like Peter Pan and The Great Gatsby, as well as more modern titles like The Alchemist.
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societysop.com

Society: Boston

“Society is backwards because our society is backwards,” this startup’s website says about its now-ubiquitous logo. The company sells clothing with a distinct underground vibe and was founded in 2007 when friends Marcel Angol and Brendan Boyd began selling T-shirts out of their cars.
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casacouture.com

Casa Couture: Boston

Who says beauty has to hurt? Casa Couture creates a variety of both heels and flats that are designed to expand in length and width, automatically adjusting to just about any size or shape of foot.
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ustrendy.com

UsTrendy: Cambridge

Aspiring independent designers post portfolios of their dream collections to UsTrendy, where fans can vote on the designs they’re itching to buy. UsTrendy will then help produce and distribute the winning designs each season, giving both shoppers and designers less exclusive and more creative access to the fashion industry. Its sister site, UsAwareness, lets users vote on which charities UsTrendy will support.
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ShopRagHouse.com

ShopRagHouse: Boston

ShopRagHouse, like UsTrendy, lets users design and vote on the next big fashions. When a design gets enoug pledges from shoppers who say they’ll definitely buy it, the design turns into a limited-edition garment made in the U.S.
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trendblast.com

Day2Night: Boston

Day2Night might just be every working girl’s dream come true. Its scarf and purse can be easily tweaked to fit in both at the office and for a night out, but its most unique product is the convertible shoe: a pair of classic black high heels that can go from ¾ inches tall to 3¾ inches in a snap — literally.
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Marie Sullivan

Njabini: Boston

Each unique item, from necklaces to bowls to scarves, is made by women living in poverty in rural Kenya. The proceeds go not only toward their income, but toward training and assisting 5,000 farming families to double their income during each harvest by 2015.
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joeshartzer.com

Nyopoly

There it is: the perfect dress. But when you check the tag, its price sends you reeling, so you head back out the door with one last wistful glance before you let perfection go for good. The goal of Nyopoly (that’s name-your-own-price-oly) is to make sure that never happens again by letting shoppers decide their own prices. After asking for an invite, shoppers can browse through the company’s list of products from designer brands and make up to three offers for the product.
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swirl.com

Swirl: Boston

Online shopping is so easy, but it’s sometimes helpful to try things on in the store. Swirl, a mobile app, combines the two shopping experiences into one. It helps users track the latest trends and sends them alerts when a saved style goes on sale. Users can also save and organize their favorite products in the app, which then locates the items in nearby stores. Swirl’s new in-store feature automatically sends users limited-time offers the minute they walk into a participating retailer.
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extravaganzi.com

Gemvara: Boston

Gemvara doesn’t have a single piece of jewelry in stock, it just has all of the pieces you need to create one. Cusomters can personalize every design on the site, from the gemstones to the type of metal used. The price updates automatically as you design, just in case you get ahead of your bank account.
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TheClothingMenu.com

Urban Caviar: Boston

Urban Caviar brings classy suits and accessories into the modern age. Founder R. Louis Paul also offers personal style consultations and holiday, denim, accessory, and vintage shopping advice.
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